Last year, it staged 111 shows - 62 in its regular programme, 23 in the Fringe, 26 in the NZ Comedy Festival and more than 100 "other" events.

Local writer Ben Sanders tells Greg Fleming about transposing his previously Auckland-based crimes Stateside and finding his storylines while daydreaming.

There are three strikingly inter-cultural exhibitions in Auckland; two of them at Te Uru Waitakere Art Gallery.

Today, NZ Opera turns up the roller door at its Onehunga Technical Centre for an open day everyone is invited to.

One of the largest cultural hubs to be developed in the world could be influenced by one of Auckland's smallest theatres, The Basement.

Kanye West had reportedly offered an Australian artist "a pretty decent chunk of money" to remove a street mural of the rapper passionately kissing himself.

This Flaxworks production mentions the boyfriends but ignores the image, and instead presents a girlish Jean, enthusiastic and sweet.

No subject is off-limits in Dawn French's stage show Thirty Million Minutes, which tackles even the most harrowing of topics with charm and good humour.

In Antony & Cleopatra the clash of civilisations is set against the intimacy of a tender love story.

A painting by one of the country's leading abstract artists will be auctioned for the first time at an expected value of between $25,000 to $35,000.

There's L'orchestre d'hommes-orchestres of Quebec. They are not a Tom Waits tribute band. But they do play his songs live on stage.

In 2000, Uri Caine's bold transformation of Bach's Goldberg Variations into a vibrant encyclopedia of styles blew welcome raspberries into complacent ears.

Our new literary heroines are dark, twisted - and a little closer to home. Kim Knight talks domestic noir with Paula Hawkins, ahead of the British author's Auckland visit.

The curtains lift, revealing a dancer seated solemnly to one side. All is quiet barring the sound of audience members settling into their seats.

This excellent one-man show is not chatty or casual. Tight, dramatic spotlights focus sharply on the orator in the dark.

Booker and Pulitzer Prize-winning authors and standout New Zealand writers are lined up for the Auckland Writers Festival.

The Great Downhill is about a boy who leaves his single mother to see the sea, riding downhill on his bike and encountering rag-tag characters.

If one of the roles of an arts festival is to present genre-blurring work, then the Auckland festival is doing its job with a show that opens this week.

Among the razzle-dazzle of the big shows, the Auckland Arts Festival always throws up some hidden gems like Waves.

Funny, sexy and feminist all at the same time, Australian cabaret star Meow Meow (Melissa Madden Gray) delivers wonderful frivolity.

The PM's daughter is known for Big Mac bras and provocative art but she says she's quite shy in real life.

Emily King music is described as existing "where the cafe meets the dancefloor" - understated pop and soul.

An artist wants to get her fish sculpture out of Fonterra's soon-to-be vacated Auckland head office.

The makers of this show have given themselves a challenge: they've attempted to adapt what is primarily adult literature for 4-8-year-olds.

The National Theatre of Scotland offers both history lessons and captivating drama in its trilogy of plays about the country's early kings being staged at the Auckland Arts Festival.

New Zealand's brightest acting and dancing talents have been pirouetting and singing their way around the stage in Auckland today.

If you stand on the edge of Danica Pond and start digging a tunnel straight through to the other side of the globe, you'll be in Spain.

A post-postmodern diva is about to take over the Auckland Arts Festival's Spiegeltent with her take on a Hans Christian Andersen folk tale.

The focus is on people's casual attitudes and everyday interactions, and Burch re-enacts several of her own experiences with angry humour and audience help.